Was it Worth it?
by SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: Aizawa definitely does not like kids. Especially not a kid with a pathetic, sad little face just begging to be rescued from their awful lives. Or a kid with a quirk that goes beyond anything he could've ever imagined. Or a kid who would go back to those people who'd hurt him so badly and- son of a bitch. Maybe the kid had managed to get just under Aizawa's skin. (one-shot)


Aizawa was just on his way back to the school after being called in for an emergency battle against a villain, in order to aid a hero who was a former student of his (and clearly not ready to be out on the field on his own yet). He wouldn't have bothered going to help at all if it weren't for the fact that it was the middle of the night, and it was hard to get into contact with most of the other heroes in the immediate area.

Just to make sure he was still in shape despite how much he lounged around and slept when at school, he decided that instead of simply walking back to the school, he was going to jump across the rooftops. It was unsurprisingly easy, since it was something he was used to doing.

Just as he was ready to sprint across the next roof he landed on, Aizawa realized that he could see a small figure standing at the very edge of the building, just barely visible in the moonlight. There were very few reasons for someone to be on the edge of a very tall building so late at night. "Whatever it is that's going on, it's not worth it," he said in a gruff voice.

The figure didn't seem to be startled by Aizawa's presence, as they slowly turned around to face him, though they didn't step away from the edge at all. It was hard to make out any of their specific features due to the hood draped partially over their face, but they were short and scrawny, and their voice had the soft, ungendered quality of a child. "What would you do if there was something you wanted more than anything else in the entire world, that you've dreamed of for as long as you can remember, and you finally have the chance to get it, but it would mean the suffering of other, innocent, people?"

Aizawa hadn't really been expecting to get into philosophy while out on a patrol, and he wasn't paid to be a therapist. But he also wasn't a big enough dick to just spout some nonsense and then walk away when he appeared to be looking a child contemplating ending their life. He took a moment to think before he answered. "I'd say it's probably time to find something new to dream about," he finally said. "You feel like talking about anything more specific?"

The kid sighed. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"There are a lot of things people wouldn't have believed at all before the first quirks manifested. And besides, with the amount of shit I've seen, I doubt there's anything left out there that can surprise me."

It took a few seconds, but then the kid took a very small step forward, and crossed their arms over their chest. "My quirk gives me the ability to bring dead people back to life. No longer how long ago it was, or how they died, as long as I have even the smallest speck of them left, I can bring them back in their optimal conditions." Aizawa had never heard of a quirk like that before, but that wasn't reason enough to not believe it. He remained silent while the kid kept talking. "My parents were considered villains. They were killed by a hero when I was four years old, and then their bodies were held for whatever stupid reasons. I got their ashes today, but I don't know what to do. I miss them so badly, and all I've ever wanted is to get them back, and I can actually do that. But they'll be the exact same as they were when they died, which means they'll still be villains who won't care about hurting innocent people. But no matter who they were to everyone else, until they died I didn't know them as anything other than the parents who loved me and took care of me."

Well, this wasn't an easy situation for sure. Aizawa wondered if it would be easiest to just grab the kid and bring them to the nearest hospital before going back to the school so that he could get some well deserved rest. But he felt like that would just be too cruel of him. So even though he already felt pretty tired, he lowered himself to sit down on the filthy rooftop. He could activate his capture weapon quickly enough if the kid did decide to jump, but he hoped that giving this conversation a more casual feeling would help the kid feel more comfortable.

After a moment of hesitation, the kid actually sank down and crossed their legs so that they were facing Aizawa, though they did reach up to tug at their hood to make sure it was still covering most of their face. When Aizawa didn't say anything, the kid took it as an invitation to continue speaking. "The people I've been living with since my parents died… aren't very good. They were friends of my parents, I think. I hate them"

None of this was familiar territory, but Aizawa was going to delve in all the same. "Do your guardians ever hurt you?" he asked carefully. Maybe there could be an easier solution to all of this than resurrecting villains, such as moving the kid to a better home.

The kid sighed. "It's complicated. They want me to be someone I'm not, and they can get violent, but never directed at me. I think they care about me in their own strange ways, but they aren't who I want. They don't understand me, and I don't understand them. And they don't like-" they cut themself off, and then suddenly flopped back so they were lying flat on their back, staring up at the night sky. "So is this the part where you tell me that it'll all get better someday?"

Aizawa shrugged, even though he was pretty sure that the kid wouldn't be able to see the motion from their current position. "No point. Either you already believe that or you don't, and me saying it isn't going the change anything. But you can make changes in your own life. And maybe it'll get better or maybe it won't, but it won't stay the same as it is now. Not forever, anyways."

"I wasn't going to jump, you know," the kid said softly. "I'm not stupid; I know that that wouldn't solve any of my problems. I just got so frustrated trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do, and I needed to get away from my family, where there's like a million people all trying to give me advice. And they don't even know- well. I promise I'm not going to jump." The kid slowly got back up to their feet, carefully making sure that their hood never slipped away enough to show off their face. "Thanks for listening to me. I know that a hero like you probably has better things to be doing with his time."

Aizawa arched one eyebrow curiously. "What makes you assume I'm a hero? I could just as easily be a villain skulking about at this hour."

He could barely make out the faint smile on the kid's face. "You're the hero Eraserhead. I recognized you right away."

It was enough of a surprise that Aizawa couldn't immediately hide his reaction to that. He purposely tried to stay off the radar as much as possible, since that's what made his work as an underground stealth hero actually effective. And the kid was definitely way too young to have known him in school, or anything like that.

He didn't even need to voice his surprise out loud, and the kid let out a soft chuckle. "Sorry, I didn't mean to freak you out. I've just kinda been raised to know about all the currently active villains and heroes. The biggest weakness you can have is not knowing your enemies and allies. Or that's what teacher always says, anyways." They shrugged. "I should probably be heading home, hopefully before anyone notices that I was gone. Thanks again for listening." Then they turned and walked back inside the building through the door that had been just slightly propped open by a thin stick.

Once the kid was gone, there was no reason to stick around on that dirty old rooftop, but Aizawa felt too lazy to make his way all the way back to his apartment at the school, so he just leaned back to look up the at the stars the way that the kid had. He wondered who they would be someday, if anyone. It was strange to think that he knew so much of the kid's life story, but didn't even know the kid's name. He'd probably never see them again, but whoever they were, Aizawa hoped that things would get better for them, and that they would be able to have a good life.

,,,

3 Years Later

"Tch, so now you're too good to even answer my calls?" Aizawa couldn't help asking in annoyance. "Please don't tell me that you somehow managed to forget about our lesson plans for 1-A today. I thought you were looking forward to the USJ, Toshi." Then there was a beep as Aizawa ran out of time to continue his message, and he narrowed his eyes before snapping his phone shut and slipping it into his pocket. The only reason he'd stubbornly clung to his flip phone all these years was solely for how satisfying it felt to slam it shut when he was annoyed with his significant other.

But even though he was annoyed, he knew that he couldn't hold up the entire class, not even for someone as important as All Might, and instead let all the students file onto the bus, ignoring the way the class representative shrieked with dismay over something or other. A few minutes after the bus left, he got a call from the principal to let him know that that idiot had over exerted himself, and was too weak for the trip.

It's not like Aizawa could blame Toshinori for helping people and being a hero, since that was literally his job, but he knew that the man had no concept of when it was time to back down and let someone else take over, and was almost certainly going to work himself into an early grave. And he knew Toshinori well enough to know that the other man was probably already beating himself up for saving people, which was stupid, but that's how he thought.

But there would be time to display his annoyance later. For now, he was just going to have to hope that Thirteen and himself would be enough to keep watch over the entire class. Not that there was anything truly dangerous to them in the USJ, of course. There were safety measures in every zone to prevent the students from getting themselves killed.

The bus ride seemed to stretch out even longer than usual, and Aizawa silently berated himself for acting so sullen when this would've been the first time he'd have made the trip with Toshinori anyways. He'd done this without the number one hero for years, and there was no reason that he couldn't do it without him again.

Eventually they reached the USJ, and the looks of awe on his students faces was quite satisfying to see. He always enjoyed showing off the school's resources, and was especially looking forward to seeing what the kids would do this year, since he had an entirely full class. Usually there were at least a few who'd been kicked out by now. Maybe he was going soft in his old age.

He could feel himself nodding off while Thirteen launched into a long and boring explanation of the facility, but then he heard something behind him, and the students began talking amongst themselves in an urgent manner. He and Thirteen quickly turned to see what was happening, just in time to witness a small figure plummet to the ground, landing in the center of the facility.

This was not something that had been planned, and Aizawa hated not knowing what was going on. He stood tense, ready for a fight, unsure of who had fallen, and if they were hurt, or planning on attacking. A moment later, a large black mass appeared a few yards behind the fallen person, and several people appeared from within the mass. A warp quirk at play, and those people did not look friendly.

Aizawa glanced back to snap orders at Thirteen to get the students out of here safely, since they were the priority, and he would work to hold off the clearly villainous intruders. He ignored it as several of the students protested his heroics. There were more people than Aizawa was comfortably used to fighting, since he was generally a stealth hero, and he could only keep his eyes on so many people at once to use his quirk on them. But he would fight anyways, to protect the children, because he knew that that was his job. And because, no matter how much he'd deny it if asked, he stupidly found himself actually caring about the kids, more of them this year than he could remember from any past year.

After telling Thirteen to go, Aizawa knew that he needed to keep his complete focus on the task at hand, which involved incapacitating those villains. He was able to take down the first few who rushed at him with relative ease, and then he slowly circled around the center of the central plaza area, not wanting to turn his back on the remaining villains.

Maybe the rest were smarter than he gave them credit for, though, because they didn't run at him and try to take him down immediately. Instead, they all stayed put relatively where they were, though Aizawa noticed the warp quirk disappear, and he was wary of where it could've gone. But he didn't have any attention to spare for that at the moment.

It felt like a very long few seconds passed before someone finally stepped forward. A young man with blueish gray hair, and a hand stuck unnervingly to his face, along with several other hands clinging to various parts of his body. He definitely had a good costume designer if he was going for an immensely creepy look.

The intruder reached up to scratch at his neck with enough force to make it lightly bleed, and then took several steps forward. Aizawa kept his eyes on the other man, while trying not to forget about the many other villains in the immediately area. He could hear shouting in the distance, but he didn't dare to look away. He didn't know what this man's quirk was, and he didn't want to waste his ability to erase it before necessary, since he could only keep it erased for so long once he started.

Surprisingly, the intruder came to a sudden pause instead of attempting to get any closer to Aizawa, and he suddenly dropped down to his knees, not looking at all bothered by the painful sounding crack of his knees that accompanied the motion. The intruder reached out, and suddenly shoved at the figure who'd fallen just moments before the other villains had invaded. Aizawa couldn't be blamed for having forgotten about them, since a clearly unmoving person couldn't be his concern at the moment.

The abrupt shoving motion had the figure rolling from their side, where they'd been facing towards the villains, onto their back, and then Aizawa could see a young, too pale face that still contained traces of baby fat. Long silvery hair fanned out beneath the kid's head, looking almost mystical. The kid let out a soft groan, and then slowly blinked a few times, looking dazed. His eyes, which were entirely white with no pupils or irises, flicked around the dome they were in, before catching sight of the intruder, and then his eyes seemed to widen in a mix of fear and relief, as odd as that seemed. He struggled to sit up, but falling from such a height had clearly injured him at least a little bit.

The intruder seemed to find the attempts at movement amusing for only a moment before he suddenly stood up, tightly gripping the kid's upper arm to yank him up to his feet as well. Aizawa noticed that the intruder left his pinky finger in the air instead of curling it around the kid's arm with the other digits.

Despite the hand attached to the intruder's face, Aizawa could tell that there was a smug grin being directed his way, which he didn't like at all. The villain spoke before he had a chance to, though. "Do you know who this is?" he asked Aizawa in a scratchy voice. Aizawa shook his head slightly, not seeing the point in lying. The villain let out a short laugh, and shook the kid roughly. "Really, he's just a quirkless nobody. Nothing for anyone here to be afraid of. But I thought that he would make for the perfect demonstration tool."

That had the kid stiffening up, and then attempting to jerk himself away from the villain's grip. The villain didn't seem to have any trouble restraining the kid though, and slowly lowered his pinky to join the rest of his fingers on the kid's arm. Aizawa didn't know what was coming, but he knew it couldn't be anything good, so he quickly deactivated the villain's quirk. When his hand was curled tightly around the kid's arm and nothing happened, the villain just sighed, and shoved the kid away.

The kid stumbled forward and fell to the ground, and the villain kicked him a few times before stepping over him to get closer to Aizawa. "Well. Guess we're doing this the hard way, huh?" The other villains surged forward, and then Aizawa didn't have time to think about anything but taking down as many of them as possible.

At one point, he was in a position to see the exit to the facility, and saw only a small portion of his students standing up there, and he didn't see Thirteen during his quick glance. Where the hell had the other students gone? Why weren't the ones who were there already far away from this place in an attempt to get help?

Then a knife swung too close to his head for comfort, and he knew that he had to focus on this fight if he wanted to walk away alive. It was exhausting, and Aizawa felt like he'd need to sleep for a week straight after this, but he managed to beat down all of the villains who'd come at him, leaving behind only the man with the hand on his face.

Or at least, he thought that that was all that was left. As soon as he was grabbed from behind by something obviously much bigger and stronger than him, Aizawa knew he had to do something quickly. But his quirk didn't work on the large creature that looked like an abomination, and he found himself being repeatedly slammed into the ground, sending pain through more areas of his body than he'd been aware of even existing.

The villain was saying something, but Aizawa couldn't find it within himself to pay attention when he felt like he was being crushed to death. Then he was dragged out of his own pain by the sound of a strangled scream, and he struggled to lift his head enough to see what was going on. The blue haired man had knelt down and grabbed the kid's arm again, leading to the horrific sight of skin shattering and flaking away, like nothing Aizawa had ever seen before. Clearly that man's quirk was dangerous, and Aizawa hated himself for being too weak to protect that kid. He focused on erasing the villain's quirk again, hoping to buy the kid enough time to somehow escape from here. His eyes were watering from the effort of keeping them open, and every single part of him felt fiercely hurt, but he wasn't going to give up. He was a hero, and it was his job to stop villains and protect people.

Then everything seemed to move in a blur as the kid slammed his elbow back into the villain's ribs, knocking the grip loose enough to twist away and jump back several steps. His lips were curled back so that his teeth showed when he snarled at the villain, who seemed more irritated than anything.

In a delayed reaction to being injured, the kid's arm began to bleed from where the skin had been cracked away, but he didn't give any indication that he was in pain. "Why did you bring me here?" he demanded.

The villain shrugged. "Like I said, I thought you'd be a good demonstration tool. It's not like you're good for much else." Then the warp quirk suddenly reappeared, allowing the villain to step out behind the kid almost too quickly to comprehend, and he reached up to wrap one hand around the front of the kid's neck. The kid began kicking and screaming immediately, and blood dripped down from between the villain's fingers.

To make things even more complicated, three of Aizawa's students decided to show up, and of course the problem child had to be one of them. Midoriya ran forward like an idiot, seeing nothing beyond the fact that someone was being hurt so badly. Midoriya threw what was clearly a powerless punch, but it was enough to take the villain by surprise, and the injured kid ducked away, stumbling in the direction of Aizawa and the monster holding him down.

The villain completely ignored Midoriya, and turned to pursue the kid instead. Midoriya no longer had the element of surprise, so rushing forward again was a mistake, and Aizawa struggled to erase the villain's quirk before he whirled around and slapped Midoriya across the face. Aizawa was relieved to see nothing more than the red mark of a normal hit on his student's face.

Midoriya kept pushing his luck, keeping the villain's attention on him, even though it seemed clear that the villain just wanted to go after the kid he'd brought with him. The kid didn't watch the fight, and just staggered over to where Aizawa was pinned to the ground. The kid looked at the giant monster, and spoke in a soft voice. "Please leave him alone. He's a hero. Remember what it felt like to be a hero? You can still be that if you just back away." When the monster didn't move at all, the kid let out an annoyed huff. He had a grimace on his face that didn't quite seem to match the sudden anger in his voice. "Fine, you big, dumb, idiot! Listen to Tomura even though he's just using you because he knows what a mindless beast you are and kill that hero you're crushing!" Then all of the pain in Aizawa's body seemed to increase more and more and-

Aizawa blinked, and it took him a moment to realize that he was being cradled gently in All Might's arms, and he couldn't feel any pain. When the hell had that happened? Hadn't that monster killed him? What was going on? Then he realized there was a light touch on his shoulder, though the small hand jerked away as soon as he turned to see the kid. The kid looked moments away from collapsing, but offered what was most likely supposed to be a comforting smile.

All Might took a small step back, taking Aizawa with him, though when he glanced down he could see that Aizawa was awake, and the look of pure joy that covered his face was nearly blinding in its brilliance. He had to look away, and carefully moved to drop out of All Might's arms, and onto his feet. All Might lowered him carefully, like he was afraid that Aizawa might break, and looked hesitant to actually let go of him. "I'm sorry I'm late," he murmured. "I thought that you were…" he trailed off, not needing to finish his sentence. All Might cleared his throat, and tried to smile again. "But now I'm here, and I have to fight."

Aizawa shrugged. "Make it up to me later. And don't even think about getting yourself killed." He watched as All Might rushed back towards the villains, then he turned to look at the kid. "Did you heal me?"

The kid hesitated before shrugging. "Kinda. I know you heard Tomura call me quirkless, but that's just because he doesn't know I have a quirk. None of them do. It's complicated, and I am sorry, but I had to get the nomu to kill you so that I could bring you back in one piece."

"I died and came back to life?" It seemed crazy, but he couldn't deny that he wasn't injured anywhere, and All Might had been sure he was dead.

The kid nodded. "Sorry. If there were any way to quickly help you that didn't involve getting you killed first, I swear I would've done that instead. I'm not a villain. But I only saved you to return the favor." Aizawa furrowed his eyebrows, and the kid sighed. "You probably don't remember me because you save so many people all the time, but a few years ago, you were the only person willing to sit and listen to me when I was really struggling."

Then it hit Aizawa, and though he'd never seen the kid's face that night, the kid had told him about his power to resurrect people, and Aizawa wondered what the odds were of encountering the kid again, especially at such a crucial time. "Why would the villains bring you here?" He didn't have to add that it was especially odd if the villains thought he was quirkless. The kid sighed again, and then gulped, which made more blood drip down from the wound on his neck, reminding Aizawa that now probably wasn't the best time to be asking these questions. It was a miracle that the kid was even still standing. "What's your name?" he asked instead, since he thought it would be best to have something to call him other than 'the kid'.

"Tomomi Haru." It only took a few seconds for Aizawa to recognize the name. Tomomi Kaoru and Tomomi Sakiko had been a rather infamous pair. Kaoru's quirk had let him freeze anyone in place for as long as he wanted to after touching them for even a second, while Sakiko's quirk made people believe they were being brutally tortured without actually physically harming them. They had been quite menacing together, and had been known for attacking random people in the streets simply because they could, rarely killing their victims because they preferred to leave them scarred for life. The way their quirks had easily complimented each other made it difficult for anyone to capture them, and in the end, they'd died resisting arrest, taking down a handful of police officers and two pro heroes with them. No wonder Haru had felt conflicted about bringing them back.

The shouting that had been increasing somewhere behind them suddenly stopped, and then there was the sound of glass shattering. Aizawa turned to see a hole in the USJ dome, and All Might stood on the ground, looking both incredibly strong and incredibly exhausted at the same time. A few of the stronger students from the class were standing nearby. He was staring down the villain- Tomura- like he was daring him to approach.

And then Midoriya was rushing forward yet again, yelling at the villain to leave All Might alone, because apparently he was incapable of learning from his mistakes, though at least this time it looked like he was actually using his quirk at least. But then the warp quirk villain moved so quickly that suddenly Tomura's hand was stretched out towards the green haired boy's face.

Aizawa tried to use his quirk, but the only thing visible of the villain from where he was standing was a hand, and that wasn't enough, and Midoriya was going to start screaming like Haru had been a few minutes ago and-

A gun shot rang out, and blood spurted from Tomura's hand, making him flinch away and giving Midoriya time to get out of the way. Tomura emerged fully from the warp, and tried to speak, but several more shots were fired, causing him to collapse to the ground. Aizawa glanced back for a moment to see the other teachers had finally arrived. It was about goddamn time. Aizawa had no idea where most of his students were, and could only hope that they were all okay.

The warp quirk quickly swallowed up Tomura's unmoving body from where it was lying on the ground, before appearing right in front of Aizawa and Haru. A soft, unfamiliar, voice spoke. "It is time to leave this place."

When Haru took a step towards the villain, Aizawa felt like a fool. He recalled the conversation between them from when they'd first met. Haru had said he'd been sent to live with friends of his parents. His parents who were horrible villains. He'd been practically raised by the League of Villains.

Haru glanced over to Aizawa. "I'm really sorry about all of this. I hate seeing people get hurt. And I hate people who go out of their way to see others get hurt. But as much as I hate them and everything they stand for, they're still my family. The only one I've got, since you were right. I did need to find something new to dream about. I haven't found it yet, but I hope I will someday. And I hope that everyone here will go on to become great heroes who do everything in their power to take down my family." Then he stepped through the warp and let himself be whisked away to somewhere unknown, leaving behind nothing but a puddle of blood and ashy flakes of skin where he'd been standing.

Later, when he was in the infirmary to visit Toshinori, and berate the fool for nearly getting himself killed, he couldn't help glancing over at one of the many empty beds, wondering if there had been anything he could've done differently to stop Haru from leaving. He barely knew the kid, but it was obvious that he wasn't villain material, and he had saved Aizawa's life despite his allegiance to his so-called family. Though if being tortured by one of his family members wasn't enough to convince him to leave, then Aizawa wasn't sure what would be.

Toshinori reached out to take one of Aizawa's hands, trying to comfort him even though the blonde was the one who was all beat up. "Why do you look so down? Our students all got away with only minor injuries, and proved that they will be great heroes someday, and quite a large number of villains were arrested and will no longer be harming anyone."

Aizawa sighed. "I should've been able to do more."

"You pushed yourself beyond anything you've ever done, so you can hardly blame yourself for anything that happened. I'm just grateful that you made a new friend, or else you would be my roommate in here." Then Toshinori tilted his head, looking curious. "Who was that child, anyways? How did he end up in the USJ? And where is he now? He looked to be in pretty bad shape, so I'm surprised he didn't wind up in here."

A sour look took over Aizawa's features. "He isn't a villain, but he is loyal to those villains. At least the ones in charge, anyways. But I don't understand why he would go back with them after how much they hurt him today."

There was a worried look on Toshinori. "I don't know. Perhaps this isn't the first time they've hurt him. Maybe he believes that's just how things are supposed to be."

"If I ever got the chance to save him, would you help me?"

Toshinori blinked once, then gave Aizawa's hand a gentle squeeze. "Of course. You know I'd do just about anything for you. And saving people is our job, so it would be the right thing to do to try and save him."

Aizawa sighed again, and then in a moment of weakness, leaned forward to pull the blonde man into a hug, careful not to put too much pressure on the healing body. Toshinori was happy to return the hug, clearly still concerned about Aizawa.

Meanwhile, somewhere across the city, a young boy kept perfectly still as his injuries were patched up. When bandages and stitches had been used to do as much as they could, the woman who'd helped him walked away, and the boy looked down at where his clenched fists rested on top of his legs. And then he tilted his head back, as if he could stare through the ceiling and right into the sky, to pray for someone to tell him whether or not he'd done the right thing.

 **A/N- This will most likely stay a one-shot unless anyone is interested in a sequel : )**


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